


Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

by more1weasley



Series: what if this storm ends (and I don't see you?) [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blackinnon Week, Blackinnon Week 2020, F/M, First time realizing they had feelings for the other, Hogwarts Fifth Year, Marauders era, blackinnon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:06:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25292104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/more1weasley/pseuds/more1weasley
Summary: Butterflies are evil, and that's all Marlene has to say about the subject.-ForBlackinnon Week 2020- A Week of FirstsDay Three: First time realising they had feelings for the other
Relationships: Sirius Black/Marlene McKinnon
Series: what if this storm ends (and I don't see you?) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828732
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!! 
> 
> I think I maybe went a different rote than most people with this prompt? Oh, well. I might actually write the 'asking out' scene later on, we'll see.
> 
> I'd like to profusely thank [polverine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/polverine/works) for providing me with the perfect title.  
> And a special thanks to [MarleyMcKitten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarleyMckitten/pseuds/MarleyMckitten) – my amazing cheerleader, who made my week with her compliments to my writing. 
> 
> Thank you both <3
> 
> -  
> Enjoy <3

**Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen**

* * *

Marlene threw the dormitory’s door open so hard that it bounced right back and slammed closed behind her with a bang, making all the other girls jump out of their skins.

“I have a problem,” she announced, matter of fact. Her dark blonde hair was up in a ponytail, little flyaway hairs stuck to her cheeks and neck. She was still wearing her Quidditch uniform, and her shoulders were squared as if she was walking into battle.

“Blimey, Marls,” Alice said, sitting up from where she had been lying down with her head hanging off the side of her bed. She brushed the dark, short hairs out of her eyes before continuing, “What’s gotten your knickers in a twist?”

“Well, if we’re talking knickers, you should probably ask _who’s_ got them in a twist,” Emmeline teased, not even looking away from the vanity’s mirror as she brushed her hair, trying to tame her wild, blonde curls.

Marlene didn’t dignify that with an answer. She came to a stop at the centre of their room, hands on her hips and eyes hard while she surveyed the others – a general measuring her soldiers. Lily was on the floor by Mary’s bed, looking into said girl’s trunk, while Mary herself lied on her stomach, with her legs in the air behind her. They were all looking at her expectantly, even Em, although through the mirror.

“I have a problem. A very serious problem,” her tone was low and dark, putting the other girls on edge.

“What is it?” Lily asked, voice hushed and worried. The others stared at her, brows furrowed and minds rushing with all the things that could’ve gone wrong in the hour since they had last seen Marlene. Emmeline turned away from the mirror and put down her brush.

“I have…” she paused, and swallowed the knot forming in her throat. “… _Feelings_.” She shuddered, the confession leaving a bad taste in her mouth. “Bad, bad feelings. Feely feelings that I _don’t_ want to feel, so I need help to stop them!”

It took a minute, but as soon as they processed her words, Marlene was mercilessly booed, insulted, and had stuff thrown at her by her supposed _friends_.

“Ow!” she yelped, looking at the brush lying at her feet amongst a pillow and two articles of Mary’s clothes. “Emmeline!”

“Sorry, it was the first thing I could reach,” she shrugged but didn’t look very apologetic.

“Bloody hell, Marlene! And here I was thinking someone died, or something,” said Lily, letting out a breath of relief.

“Was practice that bad, then?” Alice asked, getting up to gather her pillow, and returning the clothes and the brush to their respective owners.

“Practice was fine,” Marlene admitted, reluctantly. “It was _after_ practice that things got bad.”

Emmeline groaned, “Oh, spit it out, already!” she said, turning back to keep fighting with her hair, this time using her wand.

“You mentioned ‘feely feelings’?” Mary encouraged, resting her round face on her hands.

Just thinking about it made Marlene want to hurl. With a loud growl, she marched to her bed and threw herself face-first into the pillow, then she screamed.

Exchanging a look between themselves, the rest of the Gryffindor girls waited until the muffled yell stopped, before trying to decide with just looks who was going to approach the beast.

Before they could choose a sacrifice, the door opened again – this time a lot more calmly. Dorcas walked in with a smile, which soon fell as she read the room.

“Oh, Merlin, who died?” she asked, wide eyes going to each girl in turn before stopping at Marlene’s prone form.

Alice and Emmeline laughed, while Lily and Mary only chuckled.

“No one. Marls just has a bad case of ‘feelings.’” Alice explained, making air quotes with her fingers.

Marlene groaned into her pillow.

“Oh. What kind of feelings?”

“The bad kind,” came the muffled reply, but they all ignored her.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Lily sighed, getting up from the floor to sit down next to the suffering blonde. “We can’t help you if you won’t tell us what’s wrong,” she said, reaching a hand to caress Marls’ hair.

Marlene took a deep breath and turned to lie on her back. Lily’s hand moved away from her hair, but she gave her an encouraging smile. It was recent, this reluctant friendship of theirs. Ever since Ginger had dumped Snape’s arse – platonically, of course, – she had found herself turning to her roommates, even Marlene, who she had never quite gotten along with, seeing as she was best friend’s with stupid Potter. They found they could be great friends, as long as they stayed far away from the topic of that particular Marauder.

Alice, Mary, Emmeline and Dorcas had come closer too: the first two perched on the end of Marlene’s bed, while the other two sat on the floor. Marlene pushed herself into a sitting position, not caring that she was dragging mud and sweat all over her bed.

Looking at her friends, she squared her shoulders.

“I like someone.”

It was a well-known fact that Marlene McKinnon dealt poorly with feelings, _when_ she dealt with them. So it took another minute for it to sink in, but when it did Mary squealed, Alice gasped in delight and Lily smiled. Dorcas and Emmeline didn’t seem all that impressed. The later opened her mouth, probably to make a snarking remark, but Mary spoke first:

“Okay, but like-like, or just like?”

Marlene rolled her eyes so hard she was afraid they were going to fall off – not as much at the question but at the fact that she knew what Mary meant.

“Like-like, it’s a crush,” she shrugged, feigning nonchalance as she swept her ponytail back. “Just one stupid little crush that I _need_ to get rid of, so, help,” she nodded at them.

“No, no, but it can’t be just a crush. If it was, you wouldn’t be here giving Black a run for his galleons on the Drama Queen department,” said Dorcas, insightful as ever, and Marlene felt like throttling her. She didn’t comment, because she didn’t need to bring their attention to _him_ … Doe wasn’t wrong, though. Marlene had crushes and boyfriends before, but she had never felt the need to discuss them with her friends, at least not like this.

“Marls, if you like someone, why would you want to stop it?” Alice asked, a little frown between her eyes and confusion that could only come from someone who was well and truly in love.

“Not all of us have love interests straight out of fairy tales, Ali.”

“Oh, please don’t tell me it’s someone gross… Like Snape!” Emmeline shuddered, then her eyes widened and she shot Lily a terrified look, “Sorry!”

“He’s not gross,” Marlene said, because while he _could_ be extremely disgusting – she remembered him and James competing to see who managed to fit more Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans in their mouth – he wasn’t gross, not normally.

“Is he a Slytherin? They are not all bad, you know. Like…” Mary trailed off, not being able to think of a name. “Well, I’m sure they’re not all bad.”

“He’s not in Slytherin either,” she sighed, hiding her face in her hands. This was ridiculous. _Feelings_ were bloody stupid!

“For fuck’s sake, Marlene! Just spit it out already, what the hell happened?!” Dorcas exploded, throwing her hands in the air.

“OKAY!” she yelled back, and then calmed down, “Okay. But you guys can’t laugh.” She pointed a finger at each of them. She really didn’t want to do this, _share_ these feelings. But she _needed_ to get this off her chest and, while James would have been her first choice, she couldn’t tell him about this, not with that bloody stupid list hanging over her head.

Dorcas mumbled a whatever, while Emmeline rolled her eyes but nodded anyway. Alice kissed her fingers as if that was supposed to mean something.

“Cross my heart, hope to die,” Lily promised, making an X over her chest.

“Stick a needle in my eye,” Mary finished it, pointing a finger to her eye.

The four pureblood girls stared at both muggleborns with matching expressions of horrified confusion.

Mary and Lily laughed, but didn’t give an explanation.

Marlene shook her head to rid herself of the disturbing image, took a deep breath, and told them:

“Today, after practice, Sirius asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him.” She crossed her legs and stared at her lap, absentmindedly picking at some dry mud in her leather boots.

“Oh my God, what did you say?” Mary asked. None of the others said anything, and Marlene wasn’t too eager to see the look on their faces, whatever they might be.

“I laughed it off,” she shrugged, gathering her courage to look up. Lily was frowning, staring at the duvet in thought, but probably still paying attention. Dorcas and Emmeline seemed exasperated at her dramatics, but nodded in encouragement when her eyes met theirs, the gossip in Em giving her curls an extra bounce as she nodded for her to continue. Alice had a knowing smirk playing on her lips.

“Why?” Mary sounded heartbroken, as if Marlene had just said her puppy had died.

“Because,” she turned back to her lap, “you know Sirius; he just wants to get into my pants. I’m sure his original date bailed on him or something. Plus,” Marlene forced out a laugh, “James would flip, can you imagine? Sometimes I think he takes the big brother act a bit too far,”

“Marlene…”

“And I already have a date with Benjy, so I wouldn’t be able to go with him anyway…”

“But you like him? Since when?” Emmeline asked.

Marlene snorted, “Hell if I know, I just… I just realized it because I wanted to say ‘yes’ so badly,” she mumbled.

“Marley… Then why didn’t you?”

“I told you, I–”

“No, you made excuses. It wouldn’t be the first time you cancelled with someone,” Lily said. “You are not seriously going to let Potter dictate who you should date or not, are you?”

Marlene’s walls came up so fast and visibly, the other girls winced. She straightened her spine and turned towards the redhead.

“No, and he doesn’t. But he’s still my friend,” she said, perfectly civil.

Lily scoffed, “If he was really your friend, he’d want you to be happy, Marlene, with whoever it was.”

Marlene didn’t answer, she just stared at Evans until green eyes met furious blue. The blonde arched one eyebrow.

“Are you sure you want to go there?” her voice was cold and empty; she didn’t want to fight, but for James, she’d fight to her dying breath.

Lily sighed, “Fine. Sorry.”

“So… You’re really not going to go out with Sirius?” Emmeline’s voice broke the tension, and Marlene vigorously shook her head.

“Nope. I might be a little infatuated, but I’m not going to fall for his tricks. That’s why I’ve come to the two resident Ice Queens of Hogwarts,” she teased, nodding at Doe and Em, “and their sappy little sidekicks for help,” she laughed at Lily, Alice, and Mary’s offended expressions. “How do I kill these butterflies?”

They wanted to know more, Marlene could see it in their faces. They wanted to ask and prod and push, except they knew they’d be getting nothing more out of her after she said her piece. So instead of pushing her to talk like they would’ve four years ago, they decided to go with Marls’ preferred method of dealing with her problems: distracting her with something else.

“Aw, Marls! No, not the butterflies!” Mary whined, throwing herself at Marlene, tackling her to the bed. “What have butterflies ever done to you?!” she cried dramatically, turning on her back and sprawling over the blonde.

“Pain! Mary, they’ve given me stomach aches,” Marlene yelled, then started to laugh before sputtering, spitting out the brunette’s hair that had fallen into her mouth.

“Ohh, poor Marley, her tummy’s hurting,” Alice fake pouted, and threw herself over the other two. Mary yelped, and Marlene let out a strangled laugh, trying to dislocate the two girls from over her. Mary would have been easy, a slip of a girl like her, but both of them presented a bit of a challenge.

“You’re crushing me,” Marlene wheezed, reaching a hand and grabbing Lily’s jumper. “Ginger, help!”

“We’re crushing the butterflies, Marls!” The redhead jumped over Alice, and the two girls underneath them groaned.

“Alright, alright. That’s enough!” Marlene panted, “Don’t make me tickle you!” She didn’t wait for an answer or a protest, she just pulled her arms free from the dogpile and tickled the first person she reached. Judging by the loud shriek, it was Alice.

“Oh, honestly! How old are you lot?” Emmeline groaned, sounding put out and pretending to check her nails. The girls piled over Marlene all stopped, and as one they turned to look at the blonde sitting on the floor.

Noting the silence, Em looked up. She only had time enough to shriek out a “No!” before Lily, Alice and Mary scrambled out of the bed and tackled the other girl to the floor. Their laughter echoed around the tower, and Marlene pushed herself up, trying to take a breath through her laughter.

Dorcas sat down next to her, and they observed the mess of limbs on the floor with smiles on their faces. Once Mary had reached for a pillow and started hitting the other three, the fight was on. With the others putting on a show, a misguided but well meaningful attempt at getting Marlene’s thoughts away from her current problem, Doe turned to her.

“You don’t really think it was a trick to get in your pants, do you?”

Marlene’s laughter died along with her grin, leaving in its place a sad imitation of it.

“No.”

“But you really like him?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why?”

Marlene didn’t answer.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading; I hope you liked it!!
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!
> 
> Love, Vi <3


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